Ben Hur must rate very highly in anyone's ranking when it comes to a real epic tale, wrapped up with all that splendour and spectacle. It is no mean feat to turn out a movie like this and even those who aren't attracted to the story content of Ben Hur, can't deny the sheer artistry that went into the making of it.

It's the seventh year of Augustus Caesar's reign and in the Jews from Judea are making their way to their home cities for the census. A bright star in the Eastern sky announces the birth of Jesus Christ. A few years later a Roman Commander, Messala, who grew up in Judea, takes control of the area. His boyhood friend Ben Hur is there to meet him.

Ben Hur refuses to name Jewish patriots and is sent away on a slave galley and his mother is imprisoned. Ben Hur's search for revenge and to find his mother and sister are mixed in with biblical stories like the Sermon on The Mount and The Crucifixion.

The most memorable scenes are the chariot race where Ben Hur is pitted against Messala and the violent sea battle in the galleys.

The stars of this movie as Charlton Heston as Ben Hur, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet and Hugh Griffith. The director of Ben Hur was William Wyler and the composer of the fabulous soundtrack is Miklos Rozsa.

Ben Hur is the one movie everyone thinks of when they talk about a Biblical epic. It is certainly over done and much too long but it has earned itself a place in Hollywood history. The movie is 50 years old but it is still intensely watchable and somehow captivating with its hundreds of different sets and huge number of extras. It cost a small fortune to produce but its magnificence as a Hollywood production still holds good today.

Ben Hur Title Music 1959

Ben Hur On The Galley Ship

Then, the Red Army invades, and your stepfather and stepbrother are killed by the Russians. Two years later and the Russians have been replaced by the Germans. Simon Wiesenthal and his wife Cyla are transported to a forced labour camp while Simon's mother is sent to the concentration camp of Belzec where she later dies. Simon eventually ends up at the infamous concentration camp in Mauthausen, Austria while Cyla manages to escape and go into hiding in Warsaw. Now fast forward to the end of World War II, and while watching former SS guards being interrogated by the allies, Simon Wiesenthal realizes that he would like to help the investigators gather information on the war crimes carried out.

What follows is a lifetime given up to the pursuit of those Nazi war criminals who had evaded the allied clutches immediately following the war - and it isn't easy. Based in Vienna, a city closely associated with Hitler, Wiesenthal's home is firebombed by neo-Nazis and his wife held hostage. However nothing would deter the man from his work which has only just finished with his death at 96, two years ago.

Produced by the Wiesenthal Centre's documentary unit, this film was put together for a memorial dinner held in Wiesenthal's honour last year. Even though it was produced by his supporters, the documentary doesn't completely brush over some of the controversies that sprung up around the man during his career; however you would have to do some serious soul searching, if at the end of it all, you found yourself questioning the man's integrity.

You could forgive Simon Wiesenthal for being a man driven purely by revenge and a hatred for Nazis, but this was not the case and as Wiesenthal himself explains, he aimed to bring enlightenment not revenge, and the hope that the world would never forget the millions that had died in the concentration camps throughout Europe.

At first, Oskar Schindler was greedy. He thought of only the profit, and even liked the holocaust, because it gave him cheaper labor. Schindler did not care what his workers thought of him, as long as he made money. Slowly but surely Oskar Schindler began to change. At first he did little things, like when he told the guards not to kill his workers, but it eventually led to him spending all of his wealth to save over one thousand Jews. On top of saving the Jews, he refused to make ammunition for the war effort. He purposely calibrated the machines incorrectly, and when he felt at risk of the truth being found, he bought ammo from other companies to sell to the government. He did this to make the government believe that he was finally making working artillery rounds, while in truth he was not aiding the Nazi war effort at all.

The Jews loved working for Schindler. Most of the Jews were not skilled workers, and definitely would have been killed if they hadn't been working at the factory. An awesome example of this is when the women were sent to Auschwitz. The women were going to get killed in the gas chambers, but Schindler was able to save them at the last minute. Although life is not assured, the chance of the Jews surviving if they are working is exponentially higher.

Oskar Schindler played an important role in the movie. He was the inside man. Through his wealth he knew many high-ranking Nazis. His connections made it possible for him to get his factory started and hire the Jews to work with him. He was able to bribe the guards. He would use his wealth to get the guards to keep Schindler's true ambitions secret, which not only saved him but also saved the Jews working for him.

Although the entire movie was filled with heart rendering, memorable scenes, the most prominent in my mind is the scene with the women going to Auschwitz. At this point its not sure what is going to happen to them. All that is known is that Oskar Schindler has set out to find where the women were taken, and the women are in the “showers” with the lights off. If the women die, many of the lives he was trying to save would have ended right there. I was transfixed into a world of suspense wondering what the final outcome was going to be. If I remember only one scene from the entire movie, this scene would be it.

With all of the information on World War II there is a surprisingly small amount of movies on the horrendous events that took place during the Holocaust. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to watch such a moving and well-done movie as Schindler's List. This movie really helped me to actually visualize the terrible crimes committed against the Jews and gives me a greater respect to all survivors of World War II.